


No Nostalgia

by trajeudi



Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, all this is precanon, heavy mentions of death later on, no personas just sad boys, so technically you could imagine p4 happens after this, tags will likely change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-12 00:38:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trajeudi/pseuds/trajeudi
Summary: on the topic of finding a reason to live in an empty town





	No Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first work i'm kinda proud of so enjoy i guess
> 
> title comes from the song no sentiment by cloud nothings

Souji jolted awake. The world around him was closing in. Something heavy and thick was in his lungs and all around him. It crushed his chest, his shoulders, his legs. He tried to breathe, but there was no air to take in. He sat up in an attempt to clear it out, but the movement sent blood rushing into his head and only made him dizzier. The world was a blur. He took desperate gasps in, but the pressure around him was only getting worse.

His vision strained out to mere streaks of color and spots spreaded over the world. He was ready to give in, to stop wasting so much energy and just _die_ already if it meant an end to this, when suddenly he felt something being ripped from his chest.

It felt like his lungs were being pulled out through his throat. If anything was worse than the choking, it was this. As soon as it stopped he moved his hands to his chest, to make sure no organs were actually being removed and found nothing beneath the cotton of his shirt.

Whatever had just escaped him was not his lungs. They were still here, held in place by rib and muscle like nothing had been different. He felt a strange sensation, like small pools of water collected in his lungs, but when the air thinned around him he was able to take several gasping breaths in. His heart raced still, but his vision was slowly coming back into focus.

He sat trying to catch his breath for a few minutes before looking up. The world around him was layered in a thick swirling fog, a mixture of heavy greys and a sickening yellow. Souji rubbed his eyes and on second glance, the fog wasn’t moving at all. It was unmoving and still. Stagnant. He couldn't tell where he was.

His field of vision was only a few arms lengths in front of him, and the only thing he could see was the grass beneath him and the fog above him. How had he gotten somewhere so… unfamiliar?

Water in his lungs was uncomfortable, yes, but it didn’t seem to be any risk to him for now. There in mind, not body. He could keep going.

Souji rested a moment more before deciding to get up. He might be able to find more clues if he looked around. He got up shakily, the muscles in his legs protesting loudly. He was soon aware of another sensation. Looking down, he saw the dry ground, but he could swear he felt water up to his knees. Moving through it, or rather, wading through it, was painful. His legs ached and the phantom water seemed to ignore the existence of his skin, making his bones feel damp. It was an uncomfortable feeling. He had no choice but to work through it though if he wanted to get anywhere. He kept moving, albeit slowly.

After a few minutes of trudging he found himself walking over some rocks, leading to a shoreline. It was probably only ten feet away from where he was laying, but the fog and his legs made it seem like fifty.

There was water flowing by the rocks. Getting closer, Souji could see it was a river. It rushed by his feet quickly, but it was making no noise. In fact, when he really listened, the world was completely silent except for his breathing. It was eerie. Nothing here seemed right.

He decided to turn and go in the opposite direction, hoping for more clues as to where he was. Another slow walk brought him to a set of stone stairs. Thankfully they weren’t very steep, but it took him longer to get up them than it should have. At the top he rested while looking at where the stairs had taken him. There was a path going in both directions, and a few trees visible nearby. Turning back, he could see more of where he was. The vantage point helped somewhat. He decided to go right, his legs seemingly getting better as he moved along. The path directed him away from the river into a residential area.

The fog was too thick to see the other side of the street, so Souji stuck to the right hand side and continued walking. There were no cars sitting in the fog, no lights on in the houses. It didn't seem like any other people were here either. He walked down the sidewalk at as even a pace as he could manage with the strange invisible water. There was no way of knowing if something else was out there, lurking in the unknown. His legs still ached as he went down the abandoned road. He passed darkened house after house with only the scuffing noise of his shoes to accompany him.

It seemed too quiet for anyone to be around, he thought. It didn’t just look abandoned, it felt abandoned. It wasn’t as if he could check though. He wasn’t about to break into one of these houses. He didn’t need that kind of trouble if it turned out there was someone actually there.

He walked for awhile it seemed, but he couldn't tell how long it was without his watch. The streets faded into each other and the houses became almost monotonous. The dust hung in the air, and Souji tried not to breathe it in too much. Who knows how much he had taken in earlier. His legs were begging for a rest, but nowhere seemed suitable to sit down.

There wasn't anything to suggest where he actually was. The regional code on the license plates may have helped him, but on each car he passed the markings were chipped away. It was eerie. Souji couldn't concentrate enough through the aching in his body to think of any other ways to figure this all out. He just had to keep going.

Eventually he reached a road larger than the ones he had gone by previously, and he crossed it to find a gas station. No cars, empty shop. The glass of the windows was stained a sour yellow and cracks ran through the paint on the building. Within, Souji saw shelves in disarray and an empty till. He decided to keep going.

The signs and posters posted on storefronts along the street were almost completely faded out, bleached by an invisible sun. Notices reaching on illegible, and advertisements showing unrecognizable products. There was no sign of a town name or even a prefecture on anything. The sidewalk was bare, but everything seemed to be coated in a thin layer of dust. His steps, heavy as they were, didn’t seem to be enough to dislodge it though.

Souji crossed another street. He reached a stand that looked like it would normally sell food. The shutters were still open and it was again, just as empty as everywhere else. It was lonely.

Everywhere seemed to be paused midday. He backtracked a bit to try the door on the building next to the stand and just as he thought, it was open. The door was opening, but not enough for Souji to get through.

Suddenly, a wave of stagnant air surrounded him. It smelled like dust and decay. Souji turned around to see the fog thickening and closing in from his right. He tried opening the door further to get inside and away from the fog, but it seemed to be catching on something. The fog was around him again now, and he couldn’t see the door handle in his grip. He started choking again, and his grasp on the door was lost when his muscles started weakening. He sank to his knees and tried to cough the fog out of his lungs, but was unsuccessful. Once again, the world started fading. The storefront swimmed in front of his eyes with the darkness closing in fast.

The feeling in his hands and feet were going, but he could have sworn he felt hands reaching under his arms just before everything went totally black.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm not entirely happy with this but i think it's still ok and my beta says it's good so uh??
> 
> also this is probably the shortest chapter out of all of them don't worry
> 
> leave any and all comments questions concerns critique in the comments below i love hearing from people even if it's to tell me this sucks


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